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12/1/2005: Colored bubbles
BigV suggests this interesting one from Popular Science. Interesting tale accompanies that link - the problem, it turns out is not producing colored bubbles, but producing ones that don't stain or burn or create a health hazard, etc.
If you go, read the printable version (just click "print this article") - and find out how this simple task was a huge chemistry problem, and how solving it opens up a bunch of new innovations.
capnhowdy Thursday Dec 1 11:31 PM
11 years..... And he never saw the disappearing ink ad in the Marvel comics?
I never saved enough allowance to order it . Always wondered if it worked.
I think the guy on the left has his X-ray glasses on. I do know those don't work.
xoxoxoBruce Thursday Dec 1 11:36 PM
| I think the guy on the left has his X-ray glasses on. I do know those don't work. |
Cool bubbles.
Cyclefrance Friday Dec 2 01:57 AM
How come the guy on the right can't blow a 'single' bubble? - they're all lots of little bubbles joined together - do you reckon he stutters when he blows???
I like those BIG bubble jobbies...
Perry Winkle Friday Dec 2 04:35 AM
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Originally Posted by Cyclefrance
do you reckon he stutters when he blows???
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SeanAhern Friday Dec 2 07:06 AM
The challenge is more than just making the dye disappear. There's also the problem of dispersion. From the article:
| t turns out that coloring a bubble is an exceptionally difficult bit of chemistry. A bubble wall is mostly water held in place by two layers of surfactant molecules, spaced just millionths of an inch apart. If you add, say, food coloring to the bubble solution, the heavy dye molecules float freely in the water, bonding to neither the water nor the surfactants, and cascade almost immediately down the sides. You'll have a clear bubble with a dot of color at the bottom. What you need is a dye that attaches to the surfactant molecules and disperses evenly in that water layer. |
Trilby Friday Dec 2 07:21 AM
Lawrence Welk would be soooo jealous.
mlandman Friday Dec 2 10:54 AM
hmmmmmmm
Seriously
bubbles = cool.
colored bubbles = cooler.
grown man blowing them = kinda odd.
two grown men hanging out together blowing them = way gay.
Cyclefrance Friday Dec 2 11:49 AM
Yes, and this man actually devoted ten years of his life to making the perfect colored bubble. He's just working out the production costs now, and, whooops...., ah, well, yes, not quite what he had in mind - looks like they's gonna have to retail around $50 a tube. Hmmm. Don't worry, he says he'll work on it.....
No. actually reading the full story, it looks interesting - if you can move that green slime stuff by the cwt then non-staining colored bubbles have got to be in there with a chance, haven't they (presuming the liquid is as harmless as it will need to be - no cancerous side effects or is fatal if drunk - you know, those little negative developments/revelations that can sneak up behind you just when you think it's all going so well...)?
SteveDallas Friday Dec 2 12:46 PM
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Originally Posted by Undertoad
. . . but producing ones that don't stain or burn or create a health hazard, etc.
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magilla Friday Dec 2 02:56 PM
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Originally Posted by capnhowdy
11 years..... And he never saw the disappearing ink ad in the Marvel comics?
I never saved enough allowance to order it . Always wondered if it worked. I think the guy on the left has his X-ray glasses on. I do know those don't work. |
capnhowdy Friday Dec 2 05:20 PM
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Originally Posted by magilla
Mine did
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xoxoxoBruce Friday Dec 2 10:57 PM
You mean front or back? 
mitheral Saturday Dec 10 02:16 PM
The amazing science behind everyday things.
SmurfAbuser Sunday Dec 11 02:06 AM
I still think the regular bubbles are much cooler. But it is a neat idea--who'd a thunk it would take so much work?
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